How To Stay On Track with Fitness and Nutrition Goals After Lockdown
The lockdown has affected many people negatively in an emotional manner.
Since good mental health is vital for one’s well-being and daily productivity, things have felt extra tough lately for everyone. As a result of everything happening in our world, it’s no surprise that many people’s nutritional and fitness goals have been hampered.
It may feel daunting, but trust us, the hardest part is getting started. Getting back on track with fitness and nutrition may not be easy but with a positive mindset and determination, we can achieve our goals.
Let’s get started today! In this article, we’ll be going go over how to get on track to achieve your nutrition and fitness goals.
First: Clear Anxious Feelings
The pandemic has affected the usual flow of our lives, and many people have suffered from anxiety, or intensified anxiety, as a result. Anxiety and mental health are often the biggest roadblocks for people when addressing their productivity and motivation.
In order to conquer the mountain, you have to climb it first - so if you are feeling anxious, you must make efforts to address it, and clear your head. Make an effort to address the source of your anxiety, as this is key to overcoming it and finding success.
Take time to turn your feelings into words, consider what you are feeling anxious about. Once you have those feelings in words, jot down your thoughts in a journal so you can reflect on them later and work towards powerful solutions. If you are able to, you could also talk to a professional therapist.
Read this next: 11 Powerful Mantras for Anxiety
Next, Engage in a Productive Activity
A good way to motivate yourself is to engage in productive and beneficial activities. Tackling some sort of activity will get you in a good mindset that will evidently help you feel confident enough to tackle your other goals.
If you can, try starting a vegetable garden. There is nothing more motivational and alluring as eating vegetables that you grew on your own (This is a win-win situation for getting the ball rolling on your nutrition goals).
Once you get everything started, gardening is an easy and soul-fulfilling activity that can help you find your productivity and responsibility. You don’t have to have a host of existing skills or make massive purchases. A garden from old veggie scraps is also great for the environment, and the quality of the environment that we live in can have a direct impact on our moods throughout the day.
Keep Yourself Accountable
No matter what your goals are, starting your training may be hard. It is often difficult to return to old habits after a long break. However, you just have to do it at some point.
Always remind yourself that the reward of getting back to things will outweigh the negatives of not returning at all. It’s important to engage in healthy ways of pushing past physical or mental exhaustion.
Here are a few things you can do that will help keep you accountable when you feel like throwing in the towel, like letting a trusted individual know the date you will officially return to training or working out.
Some ways to keep track of your progress and keep yourself accountable is to start a blog or create social media posts about your goals. This will also create a sense of accountability and it could potentially help other people get started on their goals as well.
How to Stay On Track With Your Post- Lockdown Goals
It’s true what they say, getting started is the hardest part!
Now, let’s dive into some actionable tips on how to get back on track with your fitness and nutrition goals.
1) Document your progress every day
If you have set yourself a lofty nutritional or fitness goal, it is a good idea to document your progress and thoughts at regular intervals. This will boost your own self-esteem, and allow you to reflect and learn from your mistakes.
You should also read up on the progress of others. You can do this by talking to friends or exercise colleagues who are in a similar position to you, or by watching videos of others online to feel motivated.
There is almost always something valuable that you can learn from other people. That being said, it is important to never compare yourself to others. This can become unhealthy and lead to anger, jealously, and depression.
It is essential to remember that everyone has a different physique and individual body advantages/disadvantages, and this will lead to everyone achieving different results.
2) Have a plan of action
One of the most detrimental mistakes that people make is not having a proper plan of action. The human mind has many flaws and one of which is a tendency to forget things. In order to stay on track, jot down your goals on a piece of paper, develop a structured plan for your nutrition and exercise, and live up to it. If writing down your goals isn’t effective for you, you can download a fitness goals app to help you stay motivated and plan your day-to-day.
If you avoid this part, it can be easy to develop counter-productive habits. You may also lose track of what you were actually meaning to do, and not achieve your results.
If you’re going the personal training route, it’s best to choose a reputable one. They will save you money by sticking to their personal trainer duties, and by creating a structured plan for your own unique nutrition and exercise.
If you look at the top-achievers in any field of sport, they are almost always methodical and thorough in their approach towards training and working towards a goal. For some, not having a plan of action does work. However, having a plan will almost certainly lead to even better results.
How do you write a plan of action?
A plan of action is simply a journal or diary of your exercise and work-out plan for the week ahead. It keeps you organized, ensures that you don’t forget what you intend to do, and prevents stress in the long-run.
Prepare a time-table with your plan of action for each day. List the types of exercises that you will do on each of these days, and also specify your “rest” day. If you are implementing a new exercise, specify the finer details to make sure that you don’t forget.
This will work to ensure that your exercise plans are executed properly and help you to achieve your desired outcomes.
3) Try out different foods
One of the major reasons why people falter on their good nutrition habits is because they grow too familiar with familiarity, and become tired.
A fantastic healthy habit to adopt is aiming to try different foods and drinks. Many think that “healthy eating” is not fun. It can be fun if you make an effort to make it that way! And diversifying your food intake can actually help you achieve various nutrition goals.
Let’s face it, eating the same thing every day gets boring. If you are getting bored, it will subconsciously also affect your motivation levels.
Take a look at Daily Life’s weekly recipes for more inspiration.
What foods should you try?
As the saying goes,”you are what you eat,” meaning if you are bored with your diet plan, you will struggle to stay motivated. Your level of enthusiasm towards fitness and nutrition could decrease over time. If you want to hit your fitness and nutrition goals, it is essential that you eat a healthy, balanced diet that contains the four essential food groups. Missing out on an important food group could increase your chances of sickness.
If you regularly eat chicken sandwiches for lunch, try something different. Perhaps go vegetarian for a day and try a tofu sandwich or a stir fry vegetable bowl. One of my favorite diet changes I have ever made is committing to eating an apple after lunch to help curb afternoon snacking.
The benefits of trying out and researching different foods are that you will be more motivated to eat, and your overall general knowledge of food will improve. Furthermore, it could help you to ensure that you have a balanced diet.
What you drink is equally important. Do you only drink water before and after workout sessions? Consider adding a glucose-rich drink or fruit juice to your workout routine to help replenish your electrolytes and diversify your eating patterns. All of this will make the transition to a cleaner eating schedule more exciting.
4) Develop a positive attitude
In the end, if you don’t have a positive attitude towards your fitness and nutrition, it is much more likely that you will lose track of your goals. That is why your mental health is just as important as your physical health, make sure you are making efforts towards maintaining good mental health habits.
Do things to boost your self-confidence or add rewards to the ends of your goals. Focus on developing good social etiquette and habits like complimenting others and dressing well. Find an item or activity to treat yourself and put it as your motivator. There are a variety of different ways to get into a positive headspace.
Focusing on continuous personal growth will make you feel better and consequently, it will work to keep you motivated when developing good nutritional and exercise habits.
You Got This!
Staying on track with your fitness and nutritional goals after the lockdown will not be easy for everyone. However, it can be done with a positive mindset, attention to detail, and development of strong will-power.
Attitude is one of the most important components of achieving fitness and nutritional goals. There are different methods to boost your will-power. Some listen to upbeat music, others practice yoga, whilst some meditate.
Don’t hesitate, try writing them down right now: What are your fitness and nutrition goals? It’s time to dive back into them! You got this.
Try and find what works for you. Everyone is different, and so there is no set answer with regard to what will work best for you.
Keep the motivation train moving with How to Take the First Steps Towards Healthier Habits.